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The bold and the beautiful : reading the male vampire in contemporary film and popular culture
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Type
Thesis
Author
Koh, Noel P-Chong
Supervisor
Poon, Angelia
Gwynne, Joel
Whitehead, Angus
Abstract
A common thread running through major scholarly analyses of vampire narratives has been the argument that the metamorphosis of the vampiric body mirrors contemporary conceptions of identity, particularly in relation to gender and sexuality. Where the figure of the male vampire in contemporary film and popular culture is concerned, recent critical scholarship in this field seems concentrated on framing our understanding of the male vampire within a heterosexual/homosexual binary. In this thesis, I wish to expand on the ways in which vampire narratives are analyzed by using particular queer theories as interpretative strategies to read the selected texts. Further, given that the “queer” male vampire is a relatively new variant of the undead since the 1990s, this thesis explores the ways in which the “queer” male vampire disrupts hegemonic masculinity. In essence, through the enactment of other forms of masculinities, this thesis makes the claim that the bold and beautiful male vampire in contemporary film and popular culture offers images of masculinity that go against the norm.
In service of my stated objective, this thesis comprises seven chapters. In the literature review in my introductory chapter, I first examine some of the key interpretations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) while providing a historical trajectory of vampire texts (fiction and filmic). Subsequently, chapter one focuses on Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and Neil Jordan’s filmic adaption of Interview with the Vampire (1994). Specifically, I seek to explore how gender and sexuality are so complexly inscribed that the boundaries of sex and masculinity are usually blurred and disrupted in these productions. The focus in chapter two is on the black male vampire in the Blade trilogy (New Line Cinema: 1998 – 2004). In looking at the half-human, half-vampire protagonist, I argue that even when cinematically presented as an action hero in the Blade trilogy, male vampiric blackness is inevitably conceived as aberrant, gesturing towards the failure of cinematic containment strategies. Thereafter, in chapter three, understanding gender in the Butlerian term as a repetitive series of gestures that depict identity as a process, a mutation, an invention and a reconstruction, I contend that the androgynous male vampires in Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls (1992) celebrate gender indeterminacy that ultimately disrupts hegemonic masculinity.
In chapter four, I turn to The Vampire Diaries (The CW: 2009 - present). Critically, this television series offers numerous instances of male homosocial bonding that congeal relations between men without blurring the heterosexual/homosexual binary, and in so doing, makes manifest a queer heterosexuality. Chapter five investigates the significance of hyper-whiteness as a primary visual marker of the male vampire in the Twilight films (Summit Entertainment: 2008 – 2012). Crucially, I assert that the hyper-white male vampire visually bolsters hegemonic white masculinity within the racial context of the saga. Finally, I end my thesis by looking at Dracula Untold, a motion picture released by Universal Pictures in 2014. This production points to what social theorist Victor Seidler describes as “the contradictory experiences of diverse masculinities” (Seilder, 2006, p. 69), a recurring theme that underpins the texts that I have examined in this thesis.
In service of my stated objective, this thesis comprises seven chapters. In the literature review in my introductory chapter, I first examine some of the key interpretations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) while providing a historical trajectory of vampire texts (fiction and filmic). Subsequently, chapter one focuses on Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and Neil Jordan’s filmic adaption of Interview with the Vampire (1994). Specifically, I seek to explore how gender and sexuality are so complexly inscribed that the boundaries of sex and masculinity are usually blurred and disrupted in these productions. The focus in chapter two is on the black male vampire in the Blade trilogy (New Line Cinema: 1998 – 2004). In looking at the half-human, half-vampire protagonist, I argue that even when cinematically presented as an action hero in the Blade trilogy, male vampiric blackness is inevitably conceived as aberrant, gesturing towards the failure of cinematic containment strategies. Thereafter, in chapter three, understanding gender in the Butlerian term as a repetitive series of gestures that depict identity as a process, a mutation, an invention and a reconstruction, I contend that the androgynous male vampires in Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls (1992) celebrate gender indeterminacy that ultimately disrupts hegemonic masculinity.
In chapter four, I turn to The Vampire Diaries (The CW: 2009 - present). Critically, this television series offers numerous instances of male homosocial bonding that congeal relations between men without blurring the heterosexual/homosexual binary, and in so doing, makes manifest a queer heterosexuality. Chapter five investigates the significance of hyper-whiteness as a primary visual marker of the male vampire in the Twilight films (Summit Entertainment: 2008 – 2012). Crucially, I assert that the hyper-white male vampire visually bolsters hegemonic white masculinity within the racial context of the saga. Finally, I end my thesis by looking at Dracula Untold, a motion picture released by Universal Pictures in 2014. This production points to what social theorist Victor Seidler describes as “the contradictory experiences of diverse masculinities” (Seilder, 2006, p. 69), a recurring theme that underpins the texts that I have examined in this thesis.
Date Issued
2017
Call Number
PN1995.9.V3 Koh
Date Submitted
2017